Terraform Associate Exam Cram - Part 2

This is the Part 2 of the Terraform Associate Exam Cram. It covers the following Terraform Associate Certification exam objectives:

< Prev: Objective 1 - Understand Infrastructure as Code (IaC) concepts
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Terraform is an infrastructure as code (IaC) tool that lets you define and manage infrastructure resources through declarative, human-readable configuration files.

• Provider-agnostic:
  • Plugin-Based Architecture works with many platform and infrastructure providers.
  • Utilizes same configuration language and unified workflow for management of different infra resources and cloud platforms.
• Multi-cloud:
  • Allows to manage different clouds in one config without cloud vendor lock-in.
  • Consolidates management and orchestration for large-scale, multi-cloud infrastructures.
  • Supports hybrid infra (cloud + on-prem + SaaS).

Comparing Terraform to Other IaC Tools

• Terraform vs Cloud-native Tools (e.g., AWS CloudFormation, Azure ARM, GCP Deployment Manager):
  • Cloud-native tools → vendor-specific & single-cloud only.
  • Terraform → Multi-cloud and provider-agnostic.
  • Terraform supports composable modules and standard syntax across clouds.
• Terraform vs Configuration Management Tools (Ansible, Chef, Puppet, Salt):
  • Terraform → Focuses on infra provisioning (VMs, networks, load balancers, storage, SaaS).
  • Config management → Focuses on OS/software configuration inside servers.
  • They can complement each other: Terraform builds infra, config management tool configures it.

Advantages of Terraform

• Multi-cloud support with a single workflow.
• Standardized language → human-readable and consistent.
• Infrastructure version control with version control systems (VCS).
• Reusability via modules.
• Extensibility with custom providers.
• Idempotency - same config applied multiple times leads to same result.

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Terraform stores information about your infrastructure in a state file (terraform.tfstate). This state file keeps track of resources created by your configuration and maps them to real-world resources.

Benefits of State

• Mapping Real Resources to Config
  • State keeps track of which resources in the cloud map to which resources in Terraform config.
  • Enables Terraform to know what exists and what needs changes.
• Performance / Efficiency
  • Without state Terraform would have to re-scan cloud resources during every operation.
  • State acts as a local cache of the attribute values for all resources enabling faster operations.
• Dependency Tracking
  • Terraform uses state to build the resource dependency graph.
  • Ensures correct order of create/update/destroy actions.
• Metadata Storage
  • State is used to track metadata such as resource dependencies and some provider configuration details.
• Drift Detection
  • By comparing config vs state vs actual infra, Terraform detects drift (changes made outside Terraform).
  • Ensures desired state is reconciled with current infra resources.
• Collaboration
  • Remote state backends (S3, GCS, HCP Terraform, etc.) allow sharing state for teams.
  • State locking prevents simultaneous conflicting operations.

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< Prev: Objective 1 - Understand Infrastructure as Code (IaC) concepts
Next >: Objective 3 - Understand Terraform basics

More Terraform Tutorials:
Terraform Associate Exam Cram
Understanding Terraform Variable Precedence
Terraform Value Types Tutorial
Terraform count Explained with Practical Examples
Terraform for_each Tutorial with Practical Examples
Exploring Terraform dynamic Blocks with GCP Examples
Working with External Data in Terraform
Terraform Modules FAQ